Up All Night While Visions of Living Rooms Dance in My Head

It's 3 am and I have not slept at all.
I have too many thoughts going through my head, and they are all about decorating and moving furniture, so I might as well put them on paper, then maybe I will be able to sleep.

Life has been so busy this past year that not much has been done on this House with Potential. A few tweaks here and there, but nothing substantial. But that is about to change, because after living here for almost 3 years now, and going through some major changes with our family, the house also needs to go through some changes to make it work for our new life. 

For one thing, the bedrooms need a major overhaul. I need to be able to sleep 3 or 4 children in one room, plus give them floor space to play.

And I need a grownup guest room for some of my kids who now live far enough away to require overnight accommodations when they visit.

You have no idea the gyrations I have to go through to set this up as a double bed in the craft room!

But these changes will have to wait until summer, because I am currently storing all of my daughter's worldly possessions while she pursues her graduate degree.

This means my garage and storage shed are filled to the brim with furniture and boxes, and I need to be able to move my craft room to the garage and store some things in the shed to make these changes happen!

So, for now, I am concentrating on switching out the furniture, bookcases and accessories in the living and family rooms. You see, I have not been entirely happy with the color schemes and arrangements, but I couldn't figure out why until now, in the middle of the night. (Of course!)

This is the living room. The main color is red, with green and brown and a little yellow for accents. I love the red checked curtains and even the old slipcovers, though they could use a little refreshing.

The walls are a light coffee color with white batten and board below and I really like that too. So no repainting in this room!

The colors in the family room are mostly blue and white. The wall color is a little intense and I have been planning to paint it a sort of wheat color, but I still wanted to keep everything else blue and white,  so I wasn't sure how I felt about that.

 

I really love all the white slipcovers I have recently made.

 

 And I love the white bookcases with pale robin's egg blue beadboard backs.

But it suddenly hit me: why do I have all the white furniture in the room where people (Husband and Grandkids) hang out and watch tv and eat and lounge around? I know I can throw the slipcovers in the wash, but why not have the darker furniture in here? I know it will look good with the wheat-colored walls because I have used these colors before. And I like how the blue and white works with the coffee-colored walls of the living room. 

I know this because the color wraps into the dining room and the colors there are mostly white with some of the same pale aqua blue.

I resisted this idea at first, because it's not just a matter of moving a few chairs and tables.

 It means moving some very large bookcases, not to mention everything that's on those bookcases!

It also means a lot of repainting in the family room, not just the walls, but the armoire as well (what color that will be, I have no idea!)

So, first thing in the morning I am going to start moving furniture.

 Unless I still can't sleep.

 In which case, I might start sooner!